“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (2007)
Yet another well-reviewed film from last year that I hadn’t gotten around to, Julian Schabel’s Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a sad, gorgeous film. A high living French magazine editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby, suffers a sudden stroke, which leaves him almost totally paralyzed, or with “locked-in syndrome”. He makes small but significant progress, both physically and emotionally, and transcribes a book through blinking his eye. The acting is less the thing than the inventive ways Schnabel uses to convey Bauby’s singular, skewed perspective. Chosen by film critic Michael Phillips as one of the best of 2007, this is a lovely, bittersweet film.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:13 pm
One of the few movies I saw in a theater in 2008. The book is lovely, too.